During the filming of one Terra Nova scene, everybody stopped when they heard Charles Crichton call "Cut!". But it wasn't Crichton- it was one of the parrots.

This episode was the first to be completed; the original print had different titles and credits but is otherwise identical. This print was released to US stations as a preview copy in 1974 and still resurfaces occasionally.

Antimatter is also used as a plot device in A Matter Of Balance. Antimatter is composed of subatomic particles (protons, electrons) with an opposite electric charge ("reversed polarity" is an accurate technical description). When normal matter and antimatter particles collide they are destroyed, releasing large amounts of energy.

Why is Terra Nova's water red? It can be clays suspended in the water, or the water is stained by tannins from the soils and decaying vegetation (common in peaty areas), or algae or bacteria. The colour red suggests either algae or iron in the rocks and soil.

Koenig's line "It takes billions of years for a human being to adapt that radically" is an exaggeration: the time-scale is more likely millions of years.

Matter Of Life and Death strongly echoes Stanislaw Lem's 1961 book Solaris (English translation 1970, filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972; the 1997 film Event Horizon also borrows elements). Terra Nova is like Solaris, a remote planet able to recreate spirits from the past. In both, a facsimile of the main character's dead spouse is created (in the filmed episode he is the real husband of Helena, but in the Siren Planet script, like Solaris, he is merely an image). Like the Siren Planet script, the book's end includes a reunion with an estranged father (here Koenig's father). The themes are similar; the difficulty of communication with a truly alien form, the limits of human comprehension. "We're a long way from home. And we're going to have to start thinking differently if we're to come to terms with space."

While the book and film delve into memory and ideas of self, the Space 1999 treatment is much less subtle. Siren Planet plays as an adventure, with the aliens tricking the Alphans from the planet, while Byrne's script is a science fiction mystery as the physical form of Lee is too weak and inarticulate to explain their situation.

Structurally the episode is flawed, with much disorienting and incoherent movement between rooms to establish minor plot points. Furthermore it is overly vague; why doesn't Lee just say "The planet is antimatter"? Why are Helena or the autopsy doctors electrocuted? Act 4 improves immensely, establishing idyllic pastoral scenes and then a rapid disintegration into chaos. The resolution, winding back time to before the chaos, is unsatisfying (War Games has a similar "it was all a dream" ending, but is better done).

Koenig's concern and caution is well played (overt jealousy would have been a mistake). Helena admits she is just "numb"- although there are some hints of confusion and distraction, her blankness is uninvolving and uninteresting, wasting the emotional opportunity of the plot.

On some prints (such as that used on the US laserdiscs), the typography for Rudi Gernreich's credit is in the Braggadocio font. In other prints (such as the DVDs), it is in Futura book, consistent with the other credits. Braggadocio is similar but not identical to Futura Black, used for the This Episode caption.

Clips of the planet surface from this episode can be seen in Dr Who episode Nightmare of Eden (1979) and the Kansas music video Dust In The Wind (1977).

The parrots are a Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) and two Blue and Yellow Macaws (Ara ararauna), from tropical South America. Scarlet Macaws are red with blue and yellow wings. Blue and Yellow Macaws are one of the largest parrots in the world, with blue wings and tail, yellow breast and a green cap on the head. A different species of parrot, Green-Wing Macaws, appear in One Moment Of Humanity